Is Reed worth the money?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

Hi,

I applied to Reed with it being one of my top choices, but I’m having second thoughts about the price tag. I have a bit of a unique dilemma in that, due to my poor health, my parents do not want me to leave my home city of Portland. Thus, my first choice, University of Washington, was sadly out of the picture, and with my options limited, Reed became the one school my parents would accept that I was actually interested in attending. My parents claim to be willing to pay for my entire undergrad education, but I really hate spending money on unnecessary things, and I worry that I will go to Reed and regret it and waste money. Additionally, dad recently retired, causing a spike in his income that will prevent me from getting any financial aid. I want to major in computer science, which is why I initially wanted to attend UW, and I know Reed isn’t too strong in that department, although it has other programs that I like. I just feel like my choices are so limited that Reed is the only viable option. PSU isn’t competitive enough, UP is too conservative for my gay a**, and Lewis and Clark just seems like a less prestigious version of Reed.

What do you guys think? Should I swallow my guilt and go to Reed? Should I try to convince my parents to let me go to UW? Or should I suck it up and go to PSU with the eventual goal of transferring somewhere else?

2

Of all the college confidential threads, these questions about money and worth are probably the hardest for random advice givers on the internet to provide meaningful answers, since every family’s situation is different. And everyone will have a different perceived value for the same costs and benefits. Anyway, I’ll give you my 2 cents, along with some questions.

Have you applied RD? If so, don’t worry about this till you get accepted come April.

Do you know Reed only gets about 5% of its students from the state of Oregon? A lot of the students are coming a long way for a high powered education, and it might be reasonable to expect the “grading curve” (not that Reed actually supplies you your grades without you asking for them) is going to be tougher than some other local institutions. Will learning more, while maybe getting a lower grade than you might get somewhere else, still make you happy?

As for “unnecessary things”, of course your education will mostly be intangible, not a thing at all. And rather than considering yourself as a consumer of a precisely defined product, the value you receive from it will be mostly proportional to the effort you yourself put into your own work.

The school seems to have a culture that can be both whimsical and serious. Is that what you’re looking for (in addition to some place that just happens to be convenient commute home, which may be useful for your own personal reasons)?

I began a PhD program in Computer Science a number of decades ago, back when most colleges actually put the department in schools of Arts and Sciences. Nowadays, many places have moved their CS departments across to schools of Engineering. It is true that Reed doesn’t yet have extensive prof headcount in Computer Science yet, or an engineering major. But they are adding to the department. And my own personal guess for the future of the field, is that it may move back to join the other liberal arts departments in the coming decades, as many on the future computer science application drivers of the future come from the other arts and sciences, in addition to the existing engineering connections to the field.

As a parent of a recent graduate, I appreciate your concern for your parents wealth. But I suggest you defer to their own calculation of the pluses and minuses. For myself, as both a “full pay” Reedie parent, and as someone who just retired a car which I bought new and have been driving the past 26 years, I’m pretty happy with my own economic choices and with the value Reed provided.

I remember one of the top UW computer science professors speaking at Reed as my son started his freshman year. I don’t remember an exact quote, but his own take to the entering students was that Reed was as close the ideal place to go to school (or at least maybe for people like him), as you’re going to find anywhere.

3

It’s probably hard to see that it’s a great school if its been in your backyard your whole life, but it has a great reputation elsewhere. While Reed isn’t on my family’s personal list, I know people who have attended Reed and loved it. A child of one of these people has also gone off to attend Reed. My understanding is that it offers a top education, very rigorous despite the grading policy of only reporting conventional grades on the transcript and evaluations only to the student. I’ve never been to Reed, but through osmosis I’ve come to think of it as the University of Chicago in liberal-arts-college form. The people I know who attend are similar to the UofC crowd: super intellectual data-y nerds and very delightful, funny in an intellectual witty way. They would laugh at jokes that somehow combine data and Calvin and Hobbes. Not the least bit neurotic and they also love the outdoors. Graduate schools seem to love Reed students.

4

Reed estimates the total annual cost of attendance at $67,450 (I assumed the minimum transportation costs since you are local).
https://www.reed.edu/financialaid/cost_of_attendance.html

This does not include any financial aid. Note, though, that Reed is a relatively wealthy school on a per-student basis (2016 endowment estimate = $497 million), and has a reputation for providing generous financial aid.

The University of Washington estimates the total annual cost of attendance, for out-of-state residents, at $49,986.
https://admit.washington.edu/costs-and-financial-aid/total-cost-of-attendance#freshmen-transfer

Again, this assumes no financial aid. UW has a reputation for not providing financial aid to out-of-staters, and for making it difficult to establish in-state residency.

So the difference between Reed and UW should be around $17-18,000 per year, assuming zero Reed financial aid. If your parents literally have so much money that they can’t qualify for financial aid at Reed, this is probably not a big deal.

The difference between Reed and L&C or UP would be even less. They are all private schools with high tuition. If you don’t qualify for financial aid at Reed, then you shouldn’t expect it at L&C or UP either, since their financial resources are much more limited than Reed’s.

If you are really serious about saving big money on your education, then the obvious option is to attend PSU, especially if you can live at home and commute. You would be looking at only $24,888 per year, or only $12,057 if you live at home. Any choice other than PSU is likely to be a huge price tag increase, whether it is Reed, UP, L&C, or out-of-state UW.
https://www.pdx.edu/finaid/costs

5

As a Reedie from way back (went from science into IT) and the mom of a CS major at another school (though Reed was a top contender) Reed should be just fine in CS. A lot of CS is learned through osmosis, p-sets, contests, and internships, and rest assured that the coursework offered will be plenty rigorous. There are a lot of alum employed in the industry and various startups around Portland and in Silicon Valley.

As far as the monetary decision, that is between you and your family, but many feel that education is the best investment money can buy. Good luck to you in your decision-making!

6

Reed is quite traditional and conservative about its curriculum (although the words “traditional” and “conservative” do not apply to Reed in any other respects). They historically did not offer CS degrees, except through 3-2 programs with UW or Caltech.

In Fall 2015, Reed began offering degrees in mathematics with a concentration in computer science. My understanding is that they are now organizing a separate CS department, which will launch in Fall 2017.
http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/sallyportal/posts/2016/reed-launches-computer-science-program.html

Reed has historically been strong in math and sciences, and I would expect that the new CS program will be strong as well. It might be advantageous to attend now, because there may not be very many upperclass students in the program, so the entering students may get even more faculty attention than usual.

7

@Corbett #5 makes some excellent points, although I almost shudder at the concept of “more faculty attention than usual.” ~X( The price differential, as he notes at #3, is not that much in relative terms. I went Reed [psych], my brother went to Reed [math], and my mother dreamed of going to Reed, but that was not in the cards for a Coos County farm girl in 1938 when the family was having a hard time just holding onto the farm, so you will not hear anything negative about the school from me, BUT you should not go there unless you are all in. You will never in your life be around so many other smart and creative people. You will never in your life have to work as hard just to be adequate. If you go with the right attitude, you will never regret it. '74

8

If your father’s income is atypical for the FAFSA filing year due to retirement, maybe you can provide an explanatory note that may help with respect to financial aid eligibility. Also if this is a one-time event, you might qualify in subsequent years. It might make sense to make an appointment with a financial aid officer at Reed to discuss your concerns.

Right now, though, it seems a bit premature to be worrying about money - do you have any acceptances in hand? If you are competitive to get into Reed, you may get merit from Lewis & Clark that would bring down the price. There is also a small merit scholarship at UW (Purple & Gold?) for OOS students - about 8K per year, I believe.

I only know Reed by reputation. It seems to me that if you like that kind of intense, heady, intellectual environment, it would be hard to do better. If your parents are willing and able to pay and the fit is good, then I’d try to put the guilt aside. If you genuinely prefer a large school like UW, then you need to come up with some additional compelling arguments about why it would be better, including availability of care for whatever health issue you have.

9

You are applying to colleges in your home town of Portland, right? So with respect to Reed, you have two options:

(a) Apply to Reed, which is the wealthiest, most selective, and most prestigious school in town, or
(b) Don’t even bother applying to Reed, although the application is free.

And you are “having second thoughts” about choosing option (a) ? The option (b) route is the one that would give me second thoughts.

10

I understand your reservations, but I agree with the general sense that in the Portland area, Reed is probably the finest school. It is, however, not for everyone, particularly when cost comes into play.

If your primary concern is academic, and you want a good education in CS, I’d look into PSU again. I think they have quite a good program and I have considered supplementing my Reed curriculum with their courses. Many Reed students have found them useful. Why does it matter that PSU is not as competitive (= exclusionary) as Reed? It is about what you learn and what you produce that counts in the end when you are looking for jobs.

At the same time, I think Reed will be able to offer you a solid technical preparation in CS. It’s not very good /yet/, by virtue of its size and lack of course offerings, but the demand is so high that the college will make it great within the next two years. Next year we should have 4 professors on hand, and will definitely be able to offer a program comparable to that of, say, Vassar or Hamilton. In the end, if you want a job in tech, whether you go to PSU or Reed or UW, you will need to create a portfolio, learn things not taught in school, and build projects that may be out of the academic scope of a class.

Think long and hard about what you want, and remember that Reed is a residential college while PSU is a commuter school, but both will offer you a good education. However, one will be a lot, lot cheaper.

Also: Reed attracts top professors by virtue of its location.

11

I have several coworkers from Reed college majoring in math/physics, and literally all of them are fantastic. Don’t know about CS, but if you are interested, math at Reed is exceptional.

12

Also consider UO and Oregon state, for CS they probably would be better than Reed.